The present invention relates to a supporting disk for supporting a rotor of an open-end spinning machine, including a hub ring and a supporting ring made of polymeric material affixed to its periphery.
Such supporting disks are generally known, the hub ring being made exclusively of a metallic material, such as aluminum, or made exclusively of a nonmetallic material, such as a polymeric material.
The advantage of a hub ring made of a metallic material is to be seen in its good thermal conductivity, its great mechanical strength and its good workability. The disadvantage with such hub rings is the comparatively great weight, the high energy requirement resulting from this during frequently occurring braking and starting events, for example, during starting spinning of the open-end spinning machine, and the comparatively high price of metallic materials.
Hub rings made of polymeric materials are also known from the related art. A hub ring made of polymeric material is of advantage, because of its low weight as well as its simple and cost-effective manufacturability. Hub rings made of polymeric materials have the disadvantages of considerably lower heat conductivity and lower mechanical strength compared to metallic materials. Because of the relaxation of many plastics, there is a danger that the press fit between the drive shaft and the hub ring may loosen with increasing time of use, and that the hub ring will change its position with respect to the shaft.
The present invention is based on the object of developing further a supporting disk, of the kind named at the beginning, in such a way that the supporting disk has a good thermal conductivity, a sufficiently great mechanical strength, a low weight, as well as being producible in a cost-effective manner. The low weight is intended to reduce to a minimum the energy demand during braking and starting when starting spinning in the open-end spinning machine.
The object of the present invention is achieved by the features of claim 1. The dependent claims refer to advantageous refinements.
To attain the object, it is provided that the hub ring is developed as a composite part and is made of at least two different materials. The advantageous properties of each material are thereby used in optimal fashion for partial areas of the object to be attained. Disadvantageous properties of each material do not have a disadvantageous influence on the working properties of the supporting disk, but are compensated for by the positive properties of the other material in each case.
According to one advantageous development, it can be provided that the hub ring includes a metallic and a polymeric material which are connected to each other in a force-locking or a form-locking manner. It is an advantage with such a choice of materials that the metallic material involves good thermal conductivity and great mechanical strength, as well as good workability, while the polymeric material contributes measurably to the low weight of the supporting disk and to its cost-effective manufacturing. In that case the metallic part of the hub ring can be reduced to the minimum that is technically necessary. Through the combination of metallic and polymeric materials, each of the materials contributes only its advantageous properties, so that the hub ring is optimized overall with regard to its working properties as well as in regard to its economical manufacturability.
The hub ring can be formed by a disk made of a metallic material which is overlapped at least partially by at least one plastic element. Preferably the disk is made as an aluminum disk. The aluminum disk brings about good thermal conductivity out of the support ring, on which the rotor runs, into the surroundings, and a sufficient mechanical strength of the hub ring. Since the size of the aluminum disk is reduced to the minimum technically necessary, and the remainder of the hub ring, on the other hand, is formed by the plastic element, the supporting ring has only a low weight overall, and can be made simply and cost-effectively. The plastic element is used, for example, for obtaining a sufficiently large surface for fixing the supporting ring and/or a sufficiently large seat for the pressure fit with which the hub ring is pressed onto the shaft or onto a journal on the shaft. The aluminum disk can have a thickness between 0.5 mm and 6 mm, preferably 3 mm.
The circumference of the plastic element and the inner circumference of the supporting ring can be connected to each other by force-locking or form-locking. It has proven especially advantageous for the plastic element and the supporting ring to be connected to each other by force-locking and form-locking. In this connection it can be provided that, in a first method step, at first the aluminum disk is extrusion-coated with the polymeric material of which the plastic component is made, in order thereby to make the hub ring. In a further, second method step the polymeric material of the supporting ring is, for example, deposited on the completed hub ring also by injection molding.
Aside from the use of an injection molding process, the supporting ring can also be pressed on or poured on, for example. Beyond that, there is the possibility of applying a two-component injection molding process, in the injection molding process, in general, the same machine being used for producing the hub ring and the supporting ring. The hub ring, for example, can be made of a thermoplastic, and the supporting ring, on the other hand, can be made of a thermoplastic polyurethane. In such a method, investment costs for the production equipment are only very low.
In view of the method steps according to which the aluminum disk, which may be stamped, for example, is first of all extrusion coated with plastic to create the hub ring, the hub ring subsequently being extrusion coated with the material of the supporting ring, it is of advantage that the strength of the processed materials decreases with each working step. The advantages lie in the handling, and since the harder precursor product in each case acts in a stabilizing manner the product is easy to handle at each point in time of manufacturing. By contrast, handling would be substantially more difficult using an opposite sequence, if, for example, one had to work on a soft supporting ring.
Since the plastic of the hub ring is very hard and strong compared to the material of the supporting ring, and melts at higher temperatures, it is possible to produce the plastic regions of the hub ring with great dimensional precision and to handle them with ease. This dimensional precision is not even influenced in a negative way by the hotly sprayed on but lower melting material of the supporting ring. The tying-up of the manufacturer""s capital in semi-finished products is relatively low, since both the aluminum disk, especially when it is stamped, is produced very cost-effectively, and the plastic for the hub ring, which, compared to the plastic of which the supporting ring is made, is also favorable.
However, it is also possible to extrusion-coat the aluminum disk in a first method step with the polymeric material of the supporting ring, and subsequently, in a second method step, to spray the supporting geometries in hard plastic, e.g. using the injection molding method, onto the preassembled unit made up of the aluminum disk and the supporting ring. Since the harder plastic for the hub ring melts only at higher temperatures than the material of which the supporting ring is made, an appropriate selection of plastic can bring about fusing of the hub ring plastic with the supporting ring material, and therefore a good bonding of the two materials. As the material, glass fiber-reinforced polyurethane, for example, comes into consideration.
The overlapping of the aluminum disk with a plastic element takes place only in partial regions in which this is also technically necessary.
The circumference of the plastic element and the inner circumference of the supporting ring can be connected to each other by force-locking or form-locking. In addition to a mechanical engagement of the supporting ring with the aluminum disk, such an embodiment brings about an engagement of the supporting ring with the plastic element. This leads to an excellent strength of connection between the hub ring and the supporting ring, even during long duration of use at high rotational speeds of the supporting disk under high load. Even with great flexing work of the supporting ring, the heat is speedily conducted away into the surroundings by the aluminum disk, and thereby loosening of the supporting ring from the hub ring is reliably avoided.
In order to achieve a force-locking and a form-locking connection, it can be provided that the outer circumference of the plastic element is equipped with at least one undercut running around the circumference, into which at least one congruent projection of the supporting ring engages. The outer circumference of the plastic element can, for example, be undercut in essentially swallow""s tail shape, the swallow""s tail-shape undercuts being completely filled up with polymeric material of the supporting ring.
With a view towards simple and cost-effective manufacturing of the hub ring, the aluminum disk is preferably bordered by two flat faces.
Because the faces are flat, the aluminum disk can be formed as a stamped part. It is therefore possible to manufacture the hub ring easily and cost-effectively.
The plastic element is preferably formed as an injection molding part, and, for the purpose of manufacturing the hub ring, is sprayed directly onto the aluminum disk, Because the aluminum proportion of the hub ring is small compared that of a hub ring made entirely of aluminum, the hub ring of the supporting disk, according to the present invention, has a low weight and, in addition, manufacturing costs are substantially reduced by the low aluminum proportion.
The aluminum disk and the plastic element preferably have an essentially matching thermal expansion coefficient.
As polymeric materials for the plastic element, PBTB (polybutylene terephthalate), PETP (polyethylene terephthalate), PE (polyethylene), PA (polyamide), RTPU (reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane), PP (polypropylene), PC (polycarbonate), ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and additional plastics having similar melting ranges and similar physical properties preferably find application. In order to achieve a similar coefficient of thermal expansion to the extrusion-coated metal part, the plastic has a glass fiber proportion, carbon fiber proportion, aramid fiber proportion or alternative fiber reinforcing materials between 15 and 60%, preferably 30%.
These materials each have a thermal expansion coefficient which essentially corresponds to the thermal expansion coefficient of aluminum. During normal use of the supporting disk, because differing thermal expansions between the aluminum disk and the plastic element are avoided, no stresses at all are created in the region of the connection of the two materials, so that detachment of the materials from each other during use of the supporting disk is reliably excluded. Independently of the created heat, the supporting disk according to the present invention has excellent dynamic balance characteristics, in spite of its low weight and the different materials of which the hub ring is made. Because of the low weight, tolerances depending on manufacturing and imbalances in a light supporting disk have a substantially lesser effect than in the case of supporting disks having a fully metallic hub ring.
According to one advantageous embodiment it can be provided that the supporting ring, seen in longitudinal section, has a largely convex outer circumference. Such an embodiment leads to a defined force flow in the hub ring designed as composite part. Because of a slight convexity, the greatest stress of the supporting ring is definably generated in the middle region of the supporting ring, whereby the lateral, supported plastic regions of the hub ring are unloaded. Thus, the force flow is brought definably onto the journal via the middle region, the aluminum disk. Furthermore, the region of greatest flexing work, and thus of the greatest heat development, is specifically generated in the middle region; therefore, good dissipation of heat by the aluminum disk is provided for.
It has proven particularly advantageous if the aluminum disk has a central opening which is surrounded radially on the outside, on a first reference circle, by first bores uniformly distributed in the circumferential direction; the first bores surrounding the central opening directly adjoining in the radial direction; on a second reference circle in the region of the outer circumference of the aluminum disk through holes being arranged distributed uniformly in the circumferential direction; in the radial direction, essentially centrically between the boundary of the through holes and the outer circumference of the aluminum disk second bores being arranged; and the first bores and the through holes each being penetrated by material of the plastic element and the second bores being penetrated by material of the supporting ring. In in this connection, the second bores are arranged on a third reference circle which is closest adjacent to the outer circumference of the aluminum disk in the radial direction. The first bores, the through holes and the second bores, these each being penetrated by polymeric material, effect an excellent engaging of the parts of the hub ring, designed as a composite part, secured to one another.
The central opening of the aluminum disk can be extended in the axial direction on both sides into the plastic element. Because the hub ring is held on the shaft with its central opening by a pressure fit, it is necessary to design the specific compressive load per unit area between the hub ring and the shaft in such a way that, on the one hand, there is a secure connection between the parts and, on the other hand, the materials of the parts secured to one another are not overly stressed. A satisfactory pressure fit between the shaft and the supporting disk cannot be achieved only by the central opening of the aluminum disk which is preferably 0.5 to 6 mm thick. For that reason, on both sides in axial direction, there is the adjoining plastic element 5, whereby the central opening of the hub ring is extended in the axial direction.